Bots for Business

Productivity Bots and the Transition to Telecommuting

Making the switch to telecommuting can be disorienting and stressful. Here's why productivity bots are one of the best tools for remote teams!

The global spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, requires that many people worldwide work from home for an indefinite period of time. This has forced employees to adapt to new routines and to change some of their habits to make working from home a success.

Many experts have shared telecommuting advice, including: create a daily routine, keep a dedicated working space, and encourage team members to ask questions and communicate often. A variety of tools for remote teams have gained particular recognition, but many business managers are still wondering how to best incorporate technology in their business models during this transition. So you might ask, how does one strategically implement productivity bots and best practices?

Here are five ways that chatbots can help increase business efficiency and productivity while people are working from home:

1. Make HR processes more effective. By using automated communication bots, HR teams are able to focus on helping their employees who are working from home and on keeping them informed. A chatbot can always be available to answer questions like, “How do I request personal time off?” or “How do I submit my timesheet?” Furthermore, chatbots can support HR in collecting new employee information, like tax forms, nondisclosure agreements, and other legal documents during onboarding. BotCore helps HR improve its operational efficiency, even when staff is working remotely. Employers and employees can each benefit from the feedback and data provided by these chatbot interactions.

2. Anchor continuous learning at work. For other businesses, chatbots can act as employee trainers. They can incorporate interactions in the workflow that boost employee knowledge, provide easy access to information, and resolve any questions in a matter of seconds. During training sessions, bots can pose intriguing questions for real conversations that stimulate creative thinking. Moreover, chatbots can increase the retention of information by prompting periodic refresher quizzes and helping employees stay up to date with the newest learnings in their fields. When the learning process becomes interesting and fun, employee performance and enthusiasm are bound to increase. Tars offers simple and easy-to-build chatbot templates that can be used for employee training and learning development sessions for remote teams.

3. Provide personalized virtual assistance and administration. Since chatbots have 24/7 availability, businesses can support their remote teams with these virtual personal assistants, to which they can delegate routine tasks. Productivity bots can easily schedule meetings, send reminders, set up emails, and create appointments, freeing up time for the employee to prioritize other more important tasks. For example, Talla is an ‘’all-in-one” assistant that allows users to communicate and coordinate with other members through integrated tools, such as Office 365, Google Apps, and calendars. The bot can even monitor Twitter, suggest content, and track analytics for social media. Not only does this improve the quality of work, but it also allows employees to devote their time to core business activities for growth and success.

4. Generate data collection, security, and feedback. Chatbots also have the capability to generate secure data analysis from live chat software and to identify and address problems or issues within your organization—without the need to be physically present in the office. Chatbots like LiveAgent act as conversation-catchers with customers by addressing their concerns through developed natural language processing (NLP). By looking at specific keywords, customer demographics, and frequency of issues, bots can detect patterns and personalize messages. Importantly, data-driven businesses should consider using security tools to help ensure chatbot data security, such as two-factor authentication and VPN services.

5. Automate daily processes. Chatbots can be a great opportunity for employees to remove menial tasks from their workload. Productivity bots are of tremendous value because they can complete repetitive tasks faster––and often more efficiently––than humans can. For example, instead of manually examining all business transactions awaiting approval, a manager can simply use voice automation to request that the system do so. Over time, productivity bots can be improved to handle more complex scenarios, helping employees to free up their time to focus on deeper thinking and creativity.

Making the transition to telecommuting can be disorienting and stressful, which is why leaders and managers have turned to the best new tools for remote teams. Individuals who make up these teams face a new wave of challenges that can be mitigated with strong communication and self-motivation within a culture of trust. It is important to recognize what works best for you and your team in order to maintain and increase success while working remotely.

For more information on how to build, optimize, and maintain sophisticated tools for remote teams that meet your development and business goals during this transition period, visit discover.bot resources.